Ledo property to be demolished?

In February of this year I learned that 433 Mass Ave, which is commonly referred to as the Ledo Pizza property, was an unsecured shell. An entire rear wall was missing leaving the interior exposed to the elements and vagrants. Additionally the neglectful owners had left a dumpster and chain link fence protruding over 20ft into the public sidewalk space.

Photo of Ledo property from Feb 2009

At that time Councilmember Tommy Wells office, MPD and other DC agencies were contacted about this unsafe and blighted property. The issue has recently come to a head. Rumors I've heard is that the District government has notified the property owner that they will demolish the building.

The owner has in turn finally scrambled into action to get the property up to code. The chain link fence and the dumpster have been removed and sod grass has been laid down in the public space. As the most egregious structural defects were never visible from street (i.e. the missing rear wall) I'm not sure if they've been remedied yet. Should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Linked up: Parks, Billboards, Doormen and RPP

Shaw - A Vacant lot on 10th Street, NW between L and M Streets is planned to be transformed into a park [Renew Shaw and Greater Greater Washington]

Mount Vernon Square - Cary Silverman discusses the need for DCRA to crack down on illegal billboards [The Other 35 Percent and Lifein MVSNA]

Yale Lofts - District Chatter reports Yale Lofts is considering a video doorman.

Ward 6 - Councilmember Tommy Wells' blog introduces the Residential Parking Protection Pilot Act and engages in some Q & A.

Ledo building is swiss cheese

There was some recent buzz at PQLiving of a possible late spring opening of Ledo Pizza at 433 Mass Ave. A few Triangle residents had serious doubts regarding this heresay. Ledo Pizza has no posted permits or signs of construction activity.

I've dug around a little deeper to learn details about the building's condition. The Mass Ave fronting facade appears to be in reasonable condition (for a vacant) to passers-by. However the rear exterior of the building is missing entire walls leaving the structure open to the elements and basically little more than a shell. Any future build out would not simply be to customize the interior to suit the business use. Substantial construction work is also needed to make the structure complete and the building inhabitable. Difficult to accomplish when financing has dried up.



With the amount of equity and effort that would need to be invested to turn this shell into a Ledo Pizza it is easy to wonder why the owner did not sell. Also questionable is the choice of business. Pizza franchises need delivery service to be viable. Where would Ledo's delivery drivers park? Restaurants produce lots of waste however the rear of the building is only accessible by a roughly 3 foot wide walk way. The plan seems doomed to failure. Unfortunately demolition by neglect may be a more likely outcome than the signature Ledo square pizza pies...

Demolition on 3rd Street completed

The demolition on the 900 block of 3rd Street NW is complete.


The properties demolished were 908-914 3rd Street NW. The land is part of the Mount Vernon Place master planned development. The 300 K Street NW office building is supposedly the next piece of Mount Vernon Place to be built.

I have inquired what this demolition might signify. Word is that the buildings were demolished predominantly for safety reasons. The vacant buildings were attracting prostitution activities in and around them. The flickr photostream I compiled does not include a pre-demolition snapshot of the buildings as everytime I happened to walk over with my camera someone was sleeping or hanging out in front of the properties.